Here are a few computer maintenance tips that may help extend the life of your computer.1

Have good ventilation.

Make sure the vents on your computer are free from walls and other obstructions. The temperature inside your computer can get very hot very quickly and this can cause your computer to shut down or become damaged. Those vents are there for a reason. The more cards and devices you have, the more important this is.

Clean out the dust

From time to time, (maybe twice a year depending on how dusty or smoke-filled your home or office is) open up your computer and clean out the dust. Don't worry, if you are careful this is an easy thing to do. You can buy cans of compressed air from any computer or office supply store. Carefully follow the directions on the can to clear away the excess dust that builds up on all of the circuit boards and fans. Build-up of dust can cause fans inside the computer to slow down. It can also cause the cards and drives in your computer to operate at a higher temperature if they can't "breathe" well. computer maintenance tips

Install your hard drives flat

Install and run your hard drives flat, and not on edge. While this is not essential, if your hard drives are sideways, it can put extra stress on the bearings inside the drive, potentially shortening your hard drive's life span.

Shut down properly

Always turn off your computer by using your operating system's "Shut Down" menu. It can be dangerous to your hard drive when you unplug or switch off your computer with the power switch. Data is constantly being read and written from the drives and from memory. Even if all of your programs are closed, background applications can still be working and you can lose or damage your work. The exception is when your computer is completely frozen and ctrl-alt-del won't work. You have little choice at this point.

If your computer ever accidentally shuts down improperly, don't panic. But do run scandisk to check for any errors.

Special trick if you run Linux:
If your computer ever freezes and your keyboard won't respond to ctrl-alt-del or ctrl-alt-backspace, there is a final thing that you can try. Hold down ctrl and alt. Continue to hold ctrl and alt and hit printScreen. While ctrl and alt are still held, slowly (so that each function has a chance to run) hit the letters r, e, i, s, u, b. When you hit the final letter b, the computer should reboot.